A new Theory of Galvanism. 207 



tricity, both being original and collateral products of Galvanic 

 action. 



The grounds of this conviction, and some recent experiments 

 confirming it, are stated in the following paper. 



It is well known that heat is liberated by Voltaic apparatus, in 

 a manner and degree which has not been imitated by means of 

 mechanical electricity ; and that the latter, while it strikes at a 

 greater distance, and pervades conductors with much greater 

 speed, can with difficulty be made to effect the slightest decom- 

 positions. Wollaston, it is true, decomposed, water by means of 

 it J but the experiment was performed of necessity on a scale too 

 minute to permit of his ascertaining, whether there were any di- 

 vellent polar attractions exercised towards the atoms, as in the 

 case of the pile. The result was probably caused by mechanical 

 concussion, or that process by which tlie particles of matter are 

 dispersed when a battery is discharged through them. The opi- 

 nion of Dr. Thomson, that the fluid of the pile is in quantity 

 greater, in intensity less, than that evolved by the machine, is 

 very inconsistent with the experiments of the chemist above men- 

 tioned, who, before he could effect the separation of the elements 

 of water by mechanical electricity, was obliged to confine its 

 emission to a point imperceptible to the naked eve. if already 

 so highly intense, wherefore the necessity of a further concentra- 

 tion? Besides, were the distinction made by Dr. Thomson cor- 

 rect, the more concentrated fluid generated by a Galvanic appa- 

 ratus of a great many small pairs, ought most to rese!iible that of 

 the ordinary electricity; but the opposite is the case. The ig- 

 nition produced by a few large Galvanic plates, where the in- 

 tensity is of course low, is a result most analogous to the che- 

 mical effects of a common electrical battery. According to my 

 view, caloric and electricity may be distinguished by the follow- 

 ing characteristics. The former permeates all matter more or 

 less, though with very different degrees of facility. It radiates 

 through air, with immeasurable celerity, and, distributing itself 

 in the interior of bodies, communicates a reciprocally repellent 

 power to atoms, but not to masses. Electricity does not radiate 

 in or through any matter; and while it pervades some bodies, as 

 metals, with almost infinite velocity; by others it is so far from 

 being conducted, that it can only pass through them by a frac- 

 ture or perforation. Distributing itself over surfaces only, it 

 causes repulsion l>etween masses, but not between the ])articles 

 of the same mass. The disposition of the last mentioned princi- 

 ple to get off by neighljouring conductors, and of the other to 

 combine with the adjoining matter or to escape by radiation, 

 would prevent them from being collected at tiie positive ])ole, if 

 not in combination with each other. ^Ve^e it not for a modifi- 

 cation 



